Famous Men of Greece · Ch. XV · Unit 5: The Persian Wars
20. Themistocles
Goal: Your child can explain how Themistocles understood the "wooden wall" oracle and won the sea battle of Salamis.
You'll need
- A map or globe (a free online map works well)
- A notebook or paper and colored pencils
- Your timeline (a long strip of paper on the wall, or a notebook page)
What's in the book
The oracle at Delphi says a "wooden wall" will save Athens. Themistocles says it means ships, and Athens builds two hundred. The Athenians leave their city, and in the narrow strait of Salamis the Greeks defeat Xerxes's great fleet while he watches from a throne. Later Themistocles is banished and goes to Persia.
The lesson, step by step
Set the scene
Find the island of Salamis, just off the coast near Athens. The strait between the island and the shore is narrow.
SayDelphi, where the oracle was, is on Mount Parnassus, where Deucalion heard the oracle after the flood.
Read the chapter together
Read pages 139–146 aloud, or let your child read and help with the hard names.
Narration
Close the book. Ask your child to tell the story back in their own words, from the beginning. Don't correct as they go; just listen. If they get stuck, use a prompt:
- How did the Pythia give the oracle's answers?
- What did Themistocles say the "wooden wall" meant?
- How did he trick Xerxes into fighting in the strait?
- Why did the Persian ships get into trouble?
Try it with the table
Use a narrow gap between two books as the strait. Push in a crowd of "Persian" coins or blocks from both ends and watch them jam. Then show how a few "Greek" ships in a line can hit them one at a time.
Talk it over
Ask:
1. Where did the money for the ships come from?
2. Why was a narrow strait good for the Greeks and bad for the Persians?
3. How did the oracle's "divine Salamis" come true?
Remember it
When everything else in the land of Cecrops shall be taken Jupiter grants to Minerva that the wooden wall alone shall remain undestroyed, and it shall defend you and your children.
"We fight for all."
Add the battle of Salamis to the timeline next to Thermopylae (the same year, 480 B.C.).
Afterwards
Your child draws the battle: Xerxes on his throne on the cliff, and the ships in the strait below.
Answers to the book's problems
1. The silver dug every year from the city's silver mines, and gifts from rich Athenians. 2. The huge Persian fleet got in its own way; front ships could not go back and rear ships could not come forward. 3. Salamis "destroyed the sons of women," but they were mostly Persian, not Greek.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.